Marketing ObjectivesOur key communication objective is to raise awareness of the education portal. We seek to do this by achieving a 60% rate of awareness within our target public's. This equates to approximately 780,000 people.

We also seek to communicate to those who use competitors' productivity suites through informing them of the complimentary service Microsoft is offering.

Through communication, we aim to achieve at least one million downloads along with sustained usage of the programs within the portal. Through this, we aspire to have at least 95% of downloads use Office more than once through the campaign.

Create an understanding of brand values and interest in the brand among 15% of the target audience by 31st of July.In helping to achieve our communication objectives, multiple integrated marketing communication elements will be incorporated. These include:Advertising: As university students and teachers are constantly online, we will direct a large portion of our advertising to the internet. 92% of 18 - 24 year old's use social media.Public relations: The use of public relations techniques can help us systematically distribute information to help control Microsoft’s Office portal’s brand image.Positioning Statement“For higher education students and teachers across Australia, Microsoft Office is the essential choice for helping students with their studies and teachers with their work on any devices, anywhere and anytime. Because of its commitment to providing them with extraordinary support, comprehensive selection and the opportunity to take the first steps into the real world.”

Word on the street is...Word on the street is...PowerPoint to the people...A brighter Outlook...Excel in your study...Selling PropositionThe preceding messages directly relates to our unique selling proposition: University students have 'paid enough', and Microsoft are seeking to assist them by offering the free education portal.

Although competitors may also offer complementary programs, Microsoft Office will allow free access to their full range of programs within the Office suite and constantly offer updates.

Execution Plan

"It's your right as a student, you have paid enough"Our campaign's key messages will seek to achieve an impact on both a cognitive and a conative strategy level.

Preemptive messages will be incorporated to help achieve awareness, educate public's and explain the brand.

By claiming superiority based on the attributes of Office’s new portal, competition can be prevented from making similar claims. Microsoft Office is the first brand to offer such a unique service for students in Australia.Promotional support conative advertisement will also be incorporated to help support promotional efforts.

Designed to lead directly to a consumer response through eliciting behavior, promotional support will take the form of competition draws evoking downloads of Microsoft Office through the education portal. Microsoft Office:

Microsoft are seeking to assist students and not exploit them. 1.25 million students need a computerized productive office suite. Higher Education Students (1.25million)Academic Teachers (50,000)Our particular target audience are influenced by a number of attitudes and beliefs. Students have a strong belief and positive attitude towards complimentary products and services.

The need for a computerized office suite among students can help motivate them to access the portal. Such involvement is the perceived relevance of possessing Microsoft Office based on the public's needs, values, and interests.

The colour of the messages + the association to particular programs within the Office suite will appeal to public's and create a physiological between the brand and its consumers.

The play on words will first gain attention and further information will follow each advertisement:

Our selling strategy will also include promotion and testimonials in order to create brand awareness by using multiple media/marketing channels.

Social networking will allow a free platform for increasing brand awareness, whereas print advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales promotion will come at a cost, but also be effective.

Aged 18 - 25Part-time or Full-time studentHeavy user of internet and social mediaHeavy user of Microsoft OfficeTechnologically and social media savvyLow - medium incomeLiving with parents or moved outAll employment statusLiving all around Australia but mainly inner-city suburbsDrive or take public transportation to UniversityThroughout our social media campaign, multiple hashtags will be included to create an informative appeal through clicking on the links:

#studentrights & #officeportal

Aged 30 - 50Single or MarriedNo children or has childrenFull-time employmentStudy part-timeMedium - High incomeLiving all around Australia but mainly inner/outer city suburbsDrives to work or take public transportationHeavy user of internet Heavy user of Microsoft OfficeCompetitive AnalysisAlthough Microsoft Office have dominated the market of productivity office suites in the past..Media StrategiesUniversity EventsMedia ReleaseFacebookAdvertisementsPublic Transport AdvertisementsSocial Media PostingDownloader IncentivesBuyer BehaviourThe type of consumer who has Microsoft Office would have a high usage rate and would also have high loyalty status. We plan to incorporate the use of 5 of Australia’s Microsoft employees, particularly from the marketing sector, who will physically visit a selected number of University campuses within Australia.

Representatives of Microsoft will promote the education portal through personal selling at each event and inform public's that they can win prizes by simply downloading the program. Representatives will also set up a competition allowing students to compete for the chance to win a 'Xbox One' console at each event.

15 of the top universities in Victoria, New South Wales & Queensland will be visited within a three week span. A $45,000 budget will be allocated to this strategy.Advertising on public transportation; buses, trams, and trains, will be used to create awareness and promotion among our targeted audience.

Particular lines will be targeted, for example, trains going through Glenferrie station and into the city will target students attending Swinburne, Melbourne, RMIT, Victoria University and more.

Transit media is not only affordable, it is at a high frequency and flexible. A total of 6250 panel advertisements will be utilized over a 4-week period with MPA. The allocated budget for this is $75,000.Advertising through Facebook will be utilized to deliver highly targeted advertisements to a large range of users, predominantly university students. 'Suggested posts' will appear in the news feed of an individual matching the demographics as per our target audience.

This form of advertising is indeed costly in reaching a high number of individuals. $45,000 will be allocated to such ensuring payment for those creating online media advertisements, along with payment to promote on the social media platform.Posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will be incorporated by Microsoft in order to directly target public's through interactive, social media advertising.

"54% of Australians update or check their profile and social network daily, an increase of 170% since 2013."

Microsoft's social media presence consists of over 6.6 million combined followers and such a unique, free-of-charge method of advertising, utilizing pictures and key messages, reinforces the brand of Office to those public's. $10,000 will be allocated to these postings, providing a salary for the marketing team through the three month campaign. In helping to release and dispense facts on the portal to students and teachers among universities, the public relations team will comprise then distribute an informative media release to multiple journalists.

Details regarding the benefits of downloading from the portal will be included, along with Microsoft Office’s strategic messages to help with brand image and identity.

$5,000 will be allocated to the creation and distribution of the release in helping to achieve a prompt recall of the brand that is Office. Sales promotion will be incorporated to reward both downloads and sustained usage in the form of incentives.

A competition draw will be held online, where individuals can enter after a download has been initiated. Further rewarding continued usage will be applied within the Office programs, where users may receive messages enabling them to simply enter their details for a chance to win.

Both competitions will feature products of Microsoft such as Xbox One's, tablets, and other accessories. $15,000 will be allocated to each competition, totaling $30,000 in prizes given out by the end of the campaign. Media ScheduleThe measurement and evaluation will include a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods.Pretesting will be conducted on our advertisements and our sales promotion idea. Inquiry tests will be conducted to gather quantitative data of the effectiveness of the campaign. Brand IdentityS.W.O.T AnalysisStrengths: Microsoft Office has a dominant position in the software market for work purposes with few competitors matching their products.

Weakness: The products don’t change too much each year with each new edition of Microsoft Office mostly being similar to each other.

Opportunities: With complete control of the overall market Microsoft Office could improve its service by having the cloud feature of Google Docs.

Threats: Microsoft Office does face threats from Google Docs being used due to its simplicity and usefulness in work collaboration.Budget Total: $200,000This will allow us to obtain insights about our target market: ConcernsReactions Beliefs of the adsFixing our plan if neededThey will be measured based on the number of time our online survey are clicked and conducted, number of people sign up for our sales promotion prize and number of times our ads and links are clickedAs Kotler et al. (2012, p. 193) explains “Some consumers are completely loyal - they buy one brand all the time”. In an academic environment unless using Apple all consumers would use Microsoft Office for educational purposes.There is still multiple competitors attempting to 'dethrone' them, such include:Budget AllocationCreate positive feelings and attitudes about the brand among 20% of the target audience by 31st of August.Obtain intention to download among 15% of the target public's by 21st of August.Obtain at least 15% of our target market entering into the competition draw as a result of download from the portal by 31st of September.Create prompted recall of the brand (portal) among 60% of the target audience by the end of the campaign (31st of September). Maintain regular use of the brand by 80% of downloader's by 31st of September.Personal selling: Person-to-person communication among events can heavily persuade individuals, or groups, towards downloading from the portal. Sales promotion: Can establish brand purchase intent among our targeted public's as a result of short-term incentives that encourage downloads of Office through the portal.